Eagles beat Whirlwinds at home Thursday

Friday

Apr 11, 2014 at 3:51 PM

The Jasper Eagles refused to let up on the Archie baseball team Thursday, whisking the visiting Whirlwinds away 12-2, with the umpire utilizing the 10-run mercy rule for the Eagles to end the game in the bottom of the sixth after rallying for seven runs.

By Erik Brown

JASPER, Mo. - The Jasper Eagles refused to let up on the Archie baseball team Thursday, whisking the visiting Whirlwinds away 12-2, with the umpire utilizing the 10-run mercy rule for the Eagles to end the game in the bottom of the sixth after rallying for seven runs.

Blake Jeffries, dominated on the mound for the Eagles, pitching the entire game. Jeffries, a sophomore left-hander, had eight strikeouts, while giving up only four hits. He walked six batters.

Payton Smith led the hitting barrage for Jasper with two singles and one RBI, along with three runs scored. He also had a pair of stolen bases.

Jeffries went 3-for-4 with two runs scored, one RBI and one walk, while Eagle teammate. Jordan Rice went 3-for-4 with two runs scored. Rice had three RBI and a stolen base.

Logan Johnson rounded out Jasper’s hitting, going 3-for-4 with one run scored and three RBI. Jeffries held Archie stalwart Calvin Dickerson to two singles, one stolen base and one RBI.

JHS handed last year’s state quarterfinal qualifying team its third loss of the season in eight outings.

“We talked a lot in practice about having an approach where we’re not nibbling as much and Jeffries’ pitch-count has been sky-high the first couple of times out,” said Jasper head coach Chad Harris. “He did a much better job today, especially in the earlier half just pounding the zone, just basically trying to say, ‘Hit it,’ is what he’s trying to do. He went six innings with 99 pitches and his last outing was 84 pitches in four, so much better. Erase the four or five walks that he had and that’s a dominant pitching performance out of a sophomore.

“Up and down the lineup we were hitting the ball well today. What I liked about it was early they realized the kid (Archie’s Gibson) was throwing first pitch fastball every at bat and we jumped him with five or six guys hitting the first pitch. They did a good job of recognizing that and changing their approach. Payton, Blake, Nick, J. Rice and even Jordan Cox from the nine-hole, all hit the ball hard today.

“I think Dickerson and Romi were tired because they have already played a couple of games this week. They are their two main pitchers. Gibson was pretty solid today. Dickerson is an all-around good player. He had a rough day today with errors late of the game and you could tell they mentally fell apart. We weren’t as careful pitching to Romi. He’s a stud, there’s no way around it. Any win is a good win. It’s a district win against a quality opponent. We’re playing Golden City here tomorrow.”

The Eagles have a busy week next week. They host Sarcoxie for a rescheduled game on Monday, April 14. The next day Pierce City will travel to Jasper and then the Eagles will travel to Adrian on Wednesday; with all of those games starting at 4:30 p.m.

There is no school on Good Friday, April 19. Purdy will travel to Jasper to play a 10 a.m. Good Friday game to close out the week.

“We were talking to Blake in the bottom of the sixth to see if he had one more in him, which he said he did, and I asked him, ‘Why don’t you just put seven on the board here and you won’t have to pitch another inning? All I had to do was ask, Harris chuckled. “I didn’t know it would be that easy.”